After numerous attempts at removing any reference to DuckDuckGo and Yahoo in Firefox using about:config I am only partly rid of this search pest, NowI have resorted to using the Blocksite Firefox addon to block DuckDuckGo.com but this is only partially successfull.I just want plain vanilla Firefox with undistorted search results from search engines I trust ie not DuckDuckgo or Yahoo or Bing

This is very serious issue for me ( http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... _mint.html ) I have been a a Mint user since the low number versions generally upgrading ever second or third relaese but this issue with Mint 13 worries me, the previous Mint Search with its distorted search reslts was bad enough but the Duckduckgo "hijacker" makes me think it is time to jump ship and hunt through Distrowatch for an alternative in the interim I have an HD with an older version of Mint that I will swap in.

google tracks what you search and modifies your search results based on previous searches

Always puzzled when I see this as an argument against Google and for DDG it being the reason Google searches give more relevant results. I would very much like to use the duck and live in a world where you can say "did you duck it?" "I ducked it, it wasn't there", and I have forced myself to use DDG a while back for a fortnight or a half, but Google always have better search results, not often or most of the time, but always. In google it's you searching, in DDG it's Average World Person.

zerozero: it was the case when the article came out, I remember reading it and testing it at the time.

Thank you for this thread. That’s all I can say. You most definitely have made this forum into something special. You clearly know what you are doing, you’ve covered so many bases. Thanks!

I understand that some people would like to be able to change and choose what search engine is used in the address bar. I was able to change the search engine in the box on the right in Firefox but even though I changed it, it didn't change the way the address bar searched. After some research, I found that you can change it this way.

In the Mozilla Firefox address bar type

about:config

A warning message will come up saying

This might void your warranty

Click on

I'll be careful, I promise!

Keep in mind this is a configuration file for Firefox, so be careful with what you do, especially if you use a bunch of customizations and add-ons.

After you have successfully gained access to the configuration page you will need to scroll down to where is says keyword.URL In the Preference Name section you should see keyword.URL listed.

Double-click or right click the entry and select modify. A prompt for Enter String Value for keyword.url will appear. Pick out your Search Engine and enter the string value of whatever search engine you want to use in your address bar. Below I have listed a few popular options. It doesn't have to be one of these as you can use other search engines not listed. You just have to find out what the values the serch engine uses.

I tried to find a way to change it using the preference option under the Edit menu but I couldn't find a spot for it. If there is another way to change I would be happy to know. Other wise the way listed above will work.

Please use the following URLs for Yahoo Web Search and Duck Duck Go instead of those provided by RealFuzion. These are the URLs as preconfigured in Firefox on Linux Mint 13, and this will make the search engine provider share part of their revenue with the Linux Mint project

Many thanks RealFuzion and Vincent Vermeulen for the solution to this issue of searching via the address bar with the search engine of my choice.

I'm a Linux Mint newbie and for the moment I'm trying to make everything as much as possible as it is in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid). Maybe I'll try some typical Linux Mint features later. To make up for the lost revenue of me not using the Duck Duck Go search engine I've made a donation of 10 dollars.

P.S. Can someone add [SOLVED] to the subject of the first post in this topic?

There is a folder somewhere under "Mozilla Firefox" that is named searchPlugins. This folder seems to move between versions of FireFox, presumably to make it harder to remove them... Remove all xml files there and restart the browser... TaDaa, no more DDG or others

This seams to be locked in here when I try and use the changes to the setting in Fire fox outlined here it breaks the address bar search.... so they have done somthing... if it cant be fixed i wont be using MINT DUCKTAIL is a horable search kind of just breaks the whole OS to be locked in to it

Of course have to be using the greasemonkey extension for Firefox or Chrome.But installed the first one which gives results last year and is set as default in my firefox search box.And just select manage search engines and move it to the top.

As searching many time sensitive linux solutions this helps a lot. And can always click on the clear on google search.To give all results.